Federal authorities are trying to build a case of attempted murder against the man accused in the Trump incident

CNN
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Federal investigators are currently combing through electronic data and reviewing additional evidence to seek more serious charges against the suspect in connection with the alleged assassination attempt on Donald Trump at a golf club in Florida, law enforcement sources familiar with the matter said.

Among the questions investigators still have to answer is whether there is a foreign connection, including possible links to ongoing Iranian threats against the former president or Ryan Wesley Routh's past foreign travel, sources told CNN. So far, there is no evidence that the suspect was motivated or directed by foreign elements to attack Trump.

According to the sources, Routh has not cooperated with the FBI since his arrest on Sunday and is currently only charged with weapons offenses.

But prosecutors and investigators have made it clear that they view the incident as an obvious assassination plot against the former president and are working to build evidence with these additional charges.

Complicating that effort in part is the fact that, according to U.S. intelligence, Routh had no line of sight to Trump from his position on the edge of the golf club and did not fire a shot before a Secret Service agent shot him and he fled the scene. That means prosecutors will have to use other evidence to prove his intent that day.

Palm Beach County Attorney David Aronberg said federal investigators would need to have clear evidence that Routh intended to target Trump and took a significant step toward doing so if they wanted to bring the highest charge against him.

“You don't have to fire a shot to be charged with attempted murder of a former president or a major presidential candidate,” Aronberg, who is not prosecuting the case but worked with authorities when Routh was first arrested, told CNN. “These are federal charges that could play a role.”

“But proving that is another matter,” he added, noting that investigators are looking for any writings or posts from Routh that show he was targeting Trump and that they could use as evidence of explicit intent.

Routh is scheduled to appear for a detention hearing on Monday, where prosecutors will argue that he should remain in custody pending trial. He has not yet confessed, and prosecutors could file additional charges at any time. CNN has reached out to Routh's defense attorney for comment.

Search for witnesses and possible foreign connections

Federal investigators continue to examine Routh's devices and other electronic devices and conduct interviews with possible witnesses they hope will shed more light on his intentions and motives. Investigators have spoken to family and friends from North Carolina to Hawaii, where they searched a home where Routh lived.

And the FBI is still investigating the possibility of a foreign connection, given the numerous threats against the former president from abroad and details about Routh's travel to other countries, including Ukraine.

Chelsea Walsh, who reported Routh's name to federal authorities in 2022 after meeting him while working as a nurse in Kyiv and finding his behavior disturbing, told CNN she called the FBI after the alleged assassination attempt earlier this week.

The FBI had a personal conversation following that call, Walsh said, but declined to say what was discussed.

Routh was stopped by Customs and Border Protection upon returning to the United States from Ukraine and referred to the Department of Homeland Security's investigation, HSI Deputy Director Katrina Berger told lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Wednesday.

Berger told a House committee that she believed there was no reason for his arrest at the time, but did not say whether the investigation was ongoing.

“Based on the information I read, there would have been no reason to take him into custody immediately. For example, he had not made any threats against the president or former President Trump,” Berger said.

'Ticking time bomb': Nurse who met Ryan Routh says he was 'dangerous'

“HSI responds to calls at ports of entry – probably hundreds of calls a day. Just because a person is not immediately taken into custody does not mean they are not the subject of a longer-term investigation,” she added.

Concerns about a possible foreign connection stem in part from recent intelligence reports about Iranian assassination plots against Trump, which raised doubts about Trump's safety before and after a gunman opened fire at the former president's July 13 rally in Butler, Pennsylvania.

So far, investigators have found no evidence that Iran or any other foreign government is linked to the suspect arrested Sunday or the gunman who previously tried to assassinate Trump at his rally in Butler.

But the threat from Iran in particular continues to be of great concern to US authorities and has prompted the FBI to seriously investigate the possibility of a foreign connection in both cases.

Investigators are also using Routh's social media history to better understand his intentions and motives.

These include online posts in which Routh placed his hostility toward Trump at the center of a confused and imaginative worldview that focused on Ukraine, Taiwan, North Korea and what he called the “end of humanity.”

In June 2020, Routh apparently said he voted for Trump in 2016 but has since withdrawn his support for the former president.

“I and the world hoped President Trump would be different and better than the candidate, but we were all very disappointed and it seems you are getting worse and regressing,” he wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “I'll be glad when you're gone.”

Routh also mentions Trump in his book, which is available on Amazon without a publisher and is titled “Ukraine's Unwinnable War: The Fatal Error of Democracy, the Abandonment of the World and Global Citizens – Taiwan, Afghanistan, North Korea, and the End of Humanity.”

In that publication, he described the former US president's withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018 as a “huge mistake” that brought Tehran closer to Moscow, which was then supplied with drones that have wreaked havoc in Ukraine.

“You are free to assassinate Trump,” Routh wrote in the apparently self-published book, also about Iran.

According to Aronberg, these posts alone would probably not be enough to charge Routh with attempted murder of Trump.

However, prosecutors also have the option of charging Routh with other crimes, including aggravated assault with a firearm against a federal police officer.